In the prior art of performing driving assistance for a vehicle, there are known the concepts of so-called Electronic Stability Control (ESC), also referred to as Electronic Stability Program (ESP) or Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), which is a computer-implemented control technology for improving the safety of a vehicle's stability by detecting and reducing loss of traction, wherein the control target is the yaw moment of the vehicle.
Other control concepts for performing driving assistance for a vehicle such as so-called cruise control (CC) and adaptive cruise control (ACC) are known. According to cruise control (CC), the longitudinal acceleration of a controlled vehicle is controlled based on a comparison of a user-set target speed and a current speed of the controlled vehicle. If the current speed is lower than the user-set target speed, the controlled vehicle will be positively accelerated until the current speed matches the user-set target speed, and if the current speed is larger than the user-set target speed, the controlled vehicle will be decelerated until the current speed matches the user-set target speed. According to adaptive cruise control (ACC), the vehicle will be controlled similar to the above-described cruise control (CC) but, in addition, as soon as and as long as it is determined that a distance to a proceeding vehicle is equal or lower than a user-set or pre-set target distance, the longitudinal acceleration of the controlled vehicle will be controlled such as to keep the target distance to the proceeding vehicle at least as long as the proceeding vehicle is traveling at a speed equal to or lower than the target speed.
Recently, according to EP 1 992 537 A2, another concept for performing driving assistance for a vehicle was proposed, which concept (referred to as e.g. G-Vectoring Control, GVC) can be provided alternatively or also additionally to the above-mentioned Electronic Stability Control (ESC), in which the control target is the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle and the control is based on a lateral acceleration and lateral jerk of the vehicle. The longitudinal acceleration control concept of GVC may be extended as Preview G-Vectoring Control (PGVC) by using a predicted lateral acceleration and lateral jerk of the vehicle.
Specifically, according to a control concept, a lateral acceleration of the vehicle, which is an acceleration of the vehicle in a lateral direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the vehicle corresponding to a moving direction of the vehicle, and a lateral jerk of the vehicle, which is a jerk of the vehicle in the lateral direction, are determined. Based on the determined lateral acceleration and lateral jerk, a longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle is controlled.
While the principle concept of control of longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle and the control on the basis of lateral jerk has been developed, it is desirable to modify and develop further the control concept of EP 1 992 537 A2 for providing improved safety and higher driver's comfort and convenience, and in particular for providing improved vehicle handling and cornering behavior.